Cumulative frequency graph of GLOFs in Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet. The best-ft line suggests an increase in GLOF frequency through time, although older events may be under-reported. GLOFs also took place in Patagonia, Chile in 2008 and 2009 (Dussaillant et al., 2010)(From Richardson and Reynolds, 2000).

Oerlemans et al. (1998) conducted modelling experiments for a sample of 12 glaciers and ice caps, to determine volume changes under a range of temperature and precipitation forcings (Fig. 3). The range of glacier response is very wide, so a key issue is fnding ways to upscale the results of modelling this tiny sample of glaciers to large regions. Figure 2 shows the results of two alternative weighting procedures. Although the absolute values o...

Overview of natural disasters in Asia between 1975 and 2004. Floods account for a very signifcant proportion of the disasters observed.

Compilation of available data (Fig. 1) shows that most mountain glaciers are losing mass, and that the overall rate of mass loss has increased in the last decade. For the last decade the highest mass loss per unit area has been observed in the European Alps, Patagonia, Alaska, and north-western USA/south-western Canada (Kaser et al., 2006, Lemke et al., 2007, Arendt et al., 2009).

Since Asia comprises a large portion of the World’s popula- tion, and more than 40% of all the foods in the world occur in Asia, a large number of people are affected by disasters (Fig. 14). More than 40% of the people killed by natural di- sasters are killed in Asia (Fig. 15). In the ten-year period from 1999–2008, 402 foods were recorded in Africa, 342 in the Americas, 259 in Europe and 649 in Asia. In the same time period close to 1 bill...

The infuence of glaciers on seasonal distribution of river fow is strongly dependent on annual temperature and precipitation cycles, and the proportion of the catchment occupied by glacier ice. Figure 4 compares precipitation and river fow data for heavily and lightly glacierized catchments in the European Alps and Peru. In the European Alps, runoff is greater than precipitation in summer in both heavily and lightly glacierized catchments. This...

A qanat is a water management system used to secure reliable water supply to human settlements or irrigation in semi-arid and arid regions. Probably originating in Persia, the qanat system has been adopted and developed further in large parts of Asia and Europe. Its widespread use is refected in the many names for the system and similar systems; kariz/kahan (Persian), khettara (Morocco), galeria (Spain), falaj (United Arab Emirates and Oman), ...

Averaged over their entire areas, within the period 1960– 2003 glaciers in Patagonia and Alaska have thinned by ap- proximately 35 m and 25 m, respectively, whereas high mountain glaciers in Asia have thinned by over 10 m. Data for Patagonia and Alaska are computed from glacier surface elevations for dozens of glaciers. In many other high moun- tain environments such as the Himalayas and the high Andes, where data are limited due to bo...

Seasonal fooding can occur along all the major watersheds in the Himalayan region (Figure 11–14). The largest problems occur in food prone areas with high population densities. This includes parts of northeast India, south-central Nepal, central and southern Pakistan, large parts of Bangladesh and lower reaches of the large rivers in China. In India around 40 million people are affected by fooding annually and the damage has been estimated...

Simulated contributions of glacier melt (frn/ice melt) to annual total runoff were calculated between 1 and 4%. In the period 1999–2000, when the glacier mass balance of Goldbergkees and Stubacher Sonnblickkees have been observed to be zero or slightly above zero, the annual contribution of glacier melt was calculated as 1% (Fig. 7). The highest monthly contribution in 2000 was 4% for the month of August, and the highest daily glacier melt was 12...

Downstream variation in the impact of glacier recession is illustrated in Figure 5, which shows modelled river fows for idealized catchments under climates representative of the western and eastern Himalaya and a 0.06º C per year warming scenario. In the upper parts of the river basins, where glaciers occupy 95% of the catchment area, the impact of glacier shrinkage is large. River discharges increase until mid-century, after which they de...

Since Asia comprises a large portion of the World’s popula- tion, and more than 40% of all the foods in the world occur in Asia, a large number of people are affected by disasters (Fig. 14). More than 40% of the people killed by natural di- sasters are killed in Asia (Fig. 15). In the ten-year period from 1999–2008, 402 foods were recorded in Africa, 342 in the Americas, 259 in Europe and 649 in Asia. In the same time period close to 1 bill...